Strike While the Iron is Hot: How Not to Miss an Opportunity

Opportunity, by definition, is a good position, chance, or prospect as for advancement or success, or a situation favorable for attainment of a goal. Despite this sounding merely like a stroke of luck, opportunities are actually everywhere. Opportunities to grow your business. Opportunities to grow your career. Opportunities to grow your success.

While these opportunities may be everywhere, they can be easy to miss. Some opportunities are fleeting, while other times people wait for opportunities to come to them. Knowing where and when to look will help to recognize an opportunity. Recognizing an opportunity as such is key to seizing opportunity, combined with the ability to think on your feet and make a quick decision.

Whatever type of opportunity it is, striking while the iron is hot is the difference between a lost opportunity and a world of opportunity. So it’s time to get into a position that will allow for attainment of all your goals leading you down the road of opportunity to the land of success.

Seek Out Opportunity Because It Won’t Seek You OutSure, sometimes you’ll be at the right place at the right time and be given a great opportunity. That’s the luck of the draw. But more often than not, you have to put yourself in the right place when you know the time is right.

Opportunity, by nature, does not statistically fall into someone’s lap. Opportunity most often strikes those who are actively looking to better themselves, grow their career, start a new business or turn a new page. You have to look for it to have the best chances of improving yourself.

Many people sit in the car on their commute home, or while they shower, or during the window before they fall asleep, wondering, dreaming, hoping for the day that their career takes new direction, or that new doors open in their lives. These situations are out there, waiting for you to strike. They aren’t going to come looking for you.

Simply put, if you want to meet opportunity, knock on its door rather than waiting around for it to knock on yours. You’ll save yourself a lot of waiting.

Opportunities Come to Those Who Can Handle Them, Otherwise They Aren’t OpportunitiesNot all opportunities are opportunities for everyone. If I told I could trade my car for a megayacht as my primary form of transportation, it sounds like a great opportunity to own a megayacht, but it really won’t help me commute to work. It really wouldn’t be the right opportunity at the right time, and realistically while it sounds pretty impressive it wouldn’t be an opportunity for me. It could be though, for my neighbor who is retiring to the seashore.

Put aside the notion that some unrealistic opportunities can in fact be used as motivation and that the right person will make it work. Because yes, that can happen, but statistically it won’t. Look at it from a realistic point of view.

Some situations really don’t warrant on the job training if you don’t know what you’re doing. This means if you don’t yet have said skills, it isn’t a realistic opportunity for you. It’s not to say one day it won’t be, but opportunities must be realistic in order for them to be actual opportunities rather than being in over your head.

Move Quickly to Catch Opportunities Before They’re GoneYou must always be prepared to take on an opportunity that will help you meet your personal goals. Yes, you’ll have to work to find them, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to linger and wait for you to make up your mind.

If you are always prepared to take on a new challenge, to better yourself or to make a change, you’ll be better suited for the small windows of opportunity that are presented to you.This means you must prepare, know what you want to do and how to do it so when you are given the chance to do it, you are skilled and able. Preparation will give you the tools and ability to strike while the iron is hot. When an opportunity arises, you’ll be the one who is ready for it, while the competition is scrambling around to prepare for it.

Don’t Fear the Inevitable Change that Accompanies OpportunityWith new opportunities comes change, and change scares many people away from new opportunities. There is comfort in staying where you are and doing what you know and never stretching the limits. But you can’t grow and expand your horizons by staying in your comfort zone.

Opportunities are generally a positive. They can take work, and they aren’t always easier but you’ll come out on the other end glad that you tackled them.

Recognize a True Opportunity versus an “Opportunity”We’ve all seen an infomercial for the next greatest dog leash/chamois cloth/hose gadget, and have heard the “But wait, there’s more! Call now and we’ll throw in….” This, folks, is not an opportunity. And such scenarios exist all around us, non-opportunities masquerading about as once in a lifetime promotions. Whether a pyramid scheme, a wily salesman telling you that car you want is the only one in a 300 mile radius or an offer that seems too good to be true, all trying to convince you that you must jump aboard right away before you miss your chance…Recognizing these situations as non-opportunities will let you stay prepared for when a true opportunity is presented. It will save you money and sanity in the long run.

Knowing how to identify opportunities that surround you will give you the tools it takes to tackle them. You’ll be able to confidently assess what is presented to you, and know exactly how to strike while the iron is hot. And once you’ve mastered those tools you’ll find that opportunities become more and more frequent. And that’s when you find opportunity comes knocking.